Recovery

Chapter Seven

To avoid attracting animals to the camp, it had been decided to keep the food in the jumper until it was needed. So, when Casie headed for the ship after checking on the fire, Zelenka and Ford offered to help carry the coolers back for her.

"What's on the menu tonight?" asked Aiden.

She looked at him and smiled. "Food."

"Well, I know that! What are we eating?" He pressed.

"What ever I put in front of you."

Radek chuckled at the look on Ford's face as he stopped and set the cooler on the ground.

"OK, why won't you answer me? I'm not taking this any farther till you tell me!" He crossed his arms and gave her, what she was convinced, was his idea of a foreboding look. All he managed to do was look like an obstinate child.

Casie and Radek stopped and looked back at Aiden, amused by his stubborn stance. With a big sigh, Casie finally said, "OK, I was hoping to make it a surprise but if you insist… fried donkey noses."

"Really?" Radek said. "That's my favorite! I hope you make it just like my mom."

"I'm using an old family recipe, hon. I hope your mother would approve." At that, they turned their backs on the young lieutenant and continued their, not so serious, discussion of old family recipes.

Several moments after they entered the camp, Ford returned, dragging his feet and giving both of the older scientists a look of total disgust. "I was just curious…" He mumbled to himself as he dropped down on the sand.

Casie chuckled and patted him on the cheek as she pulled a large Ziploc bag out of the cooler he'd been carrying. "Don't worry, sweety, you'll love it." She leaned closer to him. "Especially the desert!" His face brightened. "Yep," she told herself, "the magic word… works every time."

She enlisted Shepherd to erect the cooking grill over the coals while she started folding foil into a strange rectangular box, open on one end. This she set close to the coals, off to one side.

"Is that what I think it is?" Rodney asked, wide-eyed, as he watched her pull meat from the Ziploc bag and lay each piece on the grill. The sizzle it made caused more than his mouth to water.

"I did a little bartering with our dear Col. Caldwell." She added more chicken to the grill.

"Gee, if I'd known it just took being cute and batting my eyelashes at the guy to get on his good side, I would have done that days ago!" Mused Shepherd. "I don't think he likes me."

Casie interrupted, "It helps to know the enemy… research… that's all it took."

"Research?"

"Ya!" She chuckled. "I just offered to trade for access to the Daedalus' galley."

"And just what did you have to trade?" McKay was shocked at the lengths Casie would go to obtain what she wanted.

"It seems that besides being a healthy American male…"

"You flirt!" gasped John.

"…Dear Steven… is an avid fisherman." She paused.

"Uh huh?"

"I offered him a set of authentic Athosian fishing lures."

Teyla looked puzzled. "Fishing lures? But my people use fish traps…"

"That's right, they do don't they!" Casie tried to put on her best innocent look.

John laughed. "So where did you get these authentic Athosian fishing lures?"

"I made them!" She said as she finished adding the last of the chicken pieces.

"Is that what you did with all that junk you asked for?" Asked Radek.

"It always pays, Radek, to know what a man really wants!" She replied to him in her most seductive manner. Then she laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

"You are a dangerous woman, Doctor." Shepherd shook his head and sighed.

Laughing at the men's reaction, "Damn, straight! I would think, at your age, John, you would have figured out that we are ALL dangerous."

Looking around, thinking about what else needed to be started for their meal, Casie picked up a bag and a knife. Then turning back to the others, she zeroed in on McKay. Tossing the bag into his lap and holding out the knife she told him to "peel and slice".

"What?" He wasn't even sure what had landed in his lap till he opened the bag, finding potatoes and onions. "But, I can't cook!"

"Didn't you ever help your mom in the kitchen, hon?"

"Well, I…" He fumbled. "Helped with the dishes. You should have Ford or…"

In the middle of his dissembling, Casie walked over, grabbed a handful of t-shirt in the middle of his chest and pulled him up onto his feet. Wincing in pain, Rodney moved quickly.

"Hey… OUCH, leave some chest hair!"

"Chest hair?" She looked up at him. "Hmmm, yum."

"You're bad."

"Why yes… yes, I am!" She pulled him aside and spoke quietly so the others couldn't hear. "I'm giving you this job because Aiden and Radek get to do the clean up later. OK?"

"Oh…OK."

"Besides, I find it very hard to believe that a man as intelligent and resourceful as you can't cook. I doubt you eat every meal in a Denny's…"

"Ya, I guess… there are a few things I can make in the kitchen."

"Cool! All you have to do is peel and slice those for frying and I'll take over." She smiled up at him. "Oh… and another thing you should understand about women, hon, we know men aren't as helpless as they pretend to be." Winking at him, she tenderly rubbed the sore spot on his chest, "Sorry about that." Then turned and went back to fixing dinner.

An hour later, they all lounged with full stomachs, praising Casie's culinary arts.

"Gees, it's not like it was a gourmet meal, guys!" She said.

John looked at her. "I don't know anyone that can grill a chicken, fry potatoes and onions…"

"Don't forget the baked cornbread!" Aiden added. He had finished off, even the crumbs, left in the pan.

"…And cornbread." He agreed. "Over a campfire and make it taste so damn good!"

"Clever of you, making the oven out of foil!" Remarked Radek.

"Wait for desert!" She said, reveling in the praise.

"Desert?" Rodney, who had been almost comatose, perked up.

Casie laughed. "Fresh hot brownies… and you'd better enjoy them. They really cost me…" she grimaced. "From the personal stash of Col. Caldwell."

"Just what did it cost you?" John started wondering if Casie's propensity for flirting cost her more than she had bargained for. When he noticed the slight squirm she made, he realized he was probably right in his assessment.

"I have to escort him to the best fishing spots next week." She confessed.

"I always wanted to learn how to fish…" Rodney interjected quietly. "I think maybe, if its OK with you, I'll join you."

"You know," John said. "It's been a while since I went fishing… think you can find some more of those authentic fishing lures?"

"Doesn't Carson enjoy fishing too?" Rodney innocently inquired of Casie. He was surprised to see moistness when she met his eyes.

"Look guys… you really don't have…" she began.

"Yes, we do!" John declared.

"Unless… Teyla added glaring at the two men, "You would prefer to spend a day alone with the Colonel."

"NO!" Casie said quickly. "I… I mean… I'd enjoy the company." She fumbled the words. "Oh hell, I'd better get to fixing those brownies." She rose and walked off to rummage through the coolers.

"All talk and no action!" Mused Ford quietly.

"I seriously doubt that!" Rodney hissed at him.

"I have no doubt… that lady… and I mean lady," John said glaring at Aiden. "Is as much action as any man could handle. Any man she chooses, that is."

It was obvious that Ford regretted his rude comment as he watched Casie mix the brownies and set the pan in the makeshift oven.

The smell of chocolate permeated the air around them as she sat back down to lean against the dead log next to the others.

"You know…" she said. "We don't know that much about each other and I think we should take this opportunity to change that."

"That's right, we don't. Like where did we grow up, go to school, family… stuff like that!" Said Aiden, who was trying to make up for his stupid remark earlier. "I'll start out…" He looked at Casie. "If that's ok with you." She shrugged and smiled at him.

"Well… I grew up just outside of Chicago… raised by my paternal grandparents. Went to the academy right out of high school and graduated 7th in my class. After that, I trained with Special Forces and got recruited by the SGC. I served with SG-13 till we came to Atlantis." Then he stopped and looked to Zelenka.

"I was born in Prague, but my parents moved to family farm in Ostrava, which is not far from the border with Poland. My father wanted me to stay home and help on the farm but my teacher got me into university in Prague. I was there for a year when I received scholarship to the university in Vienna." He sighed. "The timing was perfect. My father had chosen a wife for me and insisted that I return home to marry and work on the farm."

"You're married?" Casie asked.

Radek laughed, "As I said, the timing was perfect. I left for Vienna before my father could force me to marry her."

"He would force you to get married?" Shepherd was shocked.

"He would have to force me to marry the girl!" He said something they were all sure was a Czech expletive. "She looked… not to be insulting… she was not so… attractive." The expression on his face left no doubt to his feelings on the matter. "I finish university and return to Czech Republic to work for government. Then I come here."

"And I'm sure you left all the really hot women of The Czech Republic in tears, Radek." Casie said, making the shy physicist blush.

"Ya, both of them!" laughed Aiden with Radek agreeing.

"OK, who's next?"

"What about you?" Rodney said. "I think it's your turn for full disclosure. You can tell us how you got all those post graduate degrees that were included in your resume."

She looked shocked, then remembered that he was the head of the sciences division and in actuality, her boss, so he would naturally have read her file.

"All those degrees?" Asked John. "How many do you have?"

Rodney chuckled at her discomfort. "Lets see, what was it… four… no five! Or did you manage another one when we weren't looking?" He teased.

"How in the hell did you get five post graduate degrees?" John was incredulous.

She glared at Rodney while answering John. "If you let me… I'll start at the beginning." McKay was actually very interested also. "I grew up in Tacoma, Washington."

"Really?" John interrupted. "I was stationed there for a while. At McCord Air Force Base."

"Let her finish, Major." Rodney broke in.

"Oh, sorry." John gave her his rakish half grin.

"Well, I graduated from high school three years early and went to The University of Washington. When you're that much younger than everyone else on campus, you don't exactly fit in and naturally spent all my time on studies." She glanced over at Rodney, who knew exactly what she meant, since he had the same experience in college.

"After I got my PhD in chemistry and masters in biology, I worked in a lab and continued my studies in night school. Then I decided I wanted to go back to being a fulltime student and moved to Stanford where I worked for a masters in Forensic Science. I got a job after that in Denver with the State Police Crime Lab. I had visions of solving all the biggest crimes they had." She stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Till I was given my first really big case. It involved the murder of an eight-year-old girl. It was the worst crime scene you could ever imagine. I quit the same day but the nightmares lasted for weeks." She looked at Rodney. "Found out something that day. I have no stomach for violence."

"We won't inform Cavanaugh of that." John interrupted again.

"I went to work in a lab at the university hospital in Edinburgh where my dad taught, doing his grunt work, which is where I met Carson, and going to night school till I answered an ad for a job with the US Government. In between all that, I got married… had a son… got divorced… was sent all over the world, ending up in Atlantis." She rushed through the last part of her story.

"You have a child?" Asked Teyla, clearly startled, as were the men.

"Not really a child anymore. He's eighteen and in college." She replied quietly.

"I'm sure you miss him a great deal."

"I do, but he's very independent and now I can communicate with him every week since we got the ZPM. I have a friend at the SGC keeping track of him while I'm here."

"How long were you married?" Asked John.

Casie laughed without humor. "Like I said before, too long!" She looked away from them. "It wasn't… it was a mistake." After a long pause, she heaved a big sigh and looked at Shepherd. "So, what about you John, ever been married?"

"Almost…" He replied somberly. "She decided she didn't want to be married to the Air Force."

She broke into the silence that followed. "I think I'd better check those brownies… wouldn't want them to burn."

"So, Casie…" John said when she sat down again. "You never said what your degrees were in."

She rolled her eyes in Rodney's direction. "A PhD in Chemistry, Masters in Biology, Zoology, Forensic Science and a Bachelors in Paleontology."

Rodney chuckled. "Why do you think she was asked to come here?"

John shook his head. "How can you do that…" He turned to Zelenka and McKay. "How can she do that and have a life too?" Zelenka just shrugged.

She smirked. "No social life. I'm a science geek, I admit it freely and without reservation!" She raised her hand to the sky. "All Hail the Geeks of Atlantis!"

Rodney and Radek both raised their hands smiling and replied in unison. "All Hail, Geeks of Atlantis!"

"And on that note, lets have some brownies while they're still hot and gooey."